Former AT&T chief David Dorman will become Motorola's non-executive chairman next month as the struggling cellphone maker tries to turn around its slumping fortunes and split itself into two companies.

Federal regulators as early as Wednesday are expected to take a major step toward development of a nationwide emergency alert system that would send text messages to cellphones and other mobile devices wherever a crisis occurs.

The battle between phone and cable companies is getting uglier. Three cable giants are accusing Verizon of illegally using proprietary information it obtains as a wholesale telecom provider to retain customers who had planned to switch to the cable providers for their phone service.

Verizon Wireless and AT&T were the big winners in a U.S. airwave auction that raised a record $19.6 billion, solidifying their dominance in the cellphone market and dashing hopes that the bidding would yield a new national competitor.

For Sprint, "winning" is a relative term. After a string of dismal quarters, Wall Street would be happy if CEO Dan Hesse could just stop Sprint's bleeding. But Hesse is preparing for war against his telecom rivals, with an arsenal packed with "nukes" Hesse-speak for anything that has the potential to disrupt the status quo in wireless. One possibility under consideration: flat-rate pricing for unlimited voice calls.

A federal auction of wireless airwaves reached a milestone Thursday, drawing a $4.71 billion bid for a key chunk of spectrum and triggering a requirement that the winner open its network to any device or application.